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Mar 24, 2016

Newest Drinking Trend: Hard Sodas

If you haven’t heard about hard sodas (or pop for you Midwesterners) by now, you are probably living under a rock.

Hard root beer was a hit in 2015, with companies capitalizing on the deliciousness of your favorite soft drink. Not Your Father’s Root Beer, created by Small Town Brewery in Illinois and distributed by Pabst, became the third best-selling craft beer last year. Coney Island Brewing rolled out their own version last August, with W.G. Brewing, Forbidden Root Botanic Beers, Sprecher Brewing, and Mission Brewery all joining in with their own hard root beers. Best Damn Root Beer, by Anheuser-Busch, also rolled out, grabbing more fans for the hard soda bandwagon.

And the wagon is gaining traction. In fact, there are even more flavors rolling out — the Coney Island Hard Ginger Ale and Hard Orange Cream Ale are both delicious and have a 5.6% and 5.0% ABV (alcohol by volume) respectively, a little higher than your average beer. MillerCoors also has two versions — Henry’s Hard Ginger Ale and Henry’s Hard Orange Soda — coming in at 4.2% ABV. (All taste-tested by this writer and approved, because someone’s gotta do it.)

In addition to these flavorful beer alternatives, there is an option for all of us that like to watch our waistline. There is such a thing as boozy seltzer. This boozy seltzer is gluten-free and contains 6% alcohol, which means it’ll make you as buzzed as a beer would. Plus, the drink only contains 5 grams of carbs per bottle (versus roughly 13 grams of carbs per can of beer), so you won’t feel bloated AF afterward.

So try out one of these beer alternatives and let us know what you think!